“Get there, get by them,” the director of track and field, Randolph, yelled along with his assistant coach, Kaczor.

That was Friday, when the Central Michigan men’s and women’s track and field teams both finished in first place over Detroit Mercy, Oakland University, Macomb Community College and Aquinas College.

Randolph and Kaczor know it’s another season to aim for a Mid-American Conference championship. They know that the seniors have one final chance at a title.

For Holly Anderson, it’s her last chance.

Anderson, a senior long-distance runner, said she wants a MAC championship before she leaves CMU in May.

Also a cross-country runner, Anderson and the cross-country team came in second place at the MAC championships in the fall for the second-straight year.

The women’s track and field team finished in fourth during the MAC championships in May 2010. The last MAC title in either indoor or outdoor was 2004.

The last chance for Anderson, the cross-country runners and the rest of the track and field team has arrived. Anderson is one of four seniors from the cross-country team running track and field.

“I’m really excited,” Anderson said. “It was a really great winter of training.”

She finished first in the one-mile run Friday with at time of 5:04.86. Senior runner Veronica Garcia finished in third place with a time of 5:17.88.

Anderson said running long-distance track and field is a lot different from cross-country.

“There’s not the time (in track and field) like you have in a cross-country race,” she said.

She said the strategy differs between cross-country and distance track because of the shorter amount of time. A mile run in track and field, she said, feels more like a sprint.

Kaczor said the team is progressing, but still saw things he said were “far from perfect.” He also expected to see some rust in the first meet of the season.

“They ran really well, but it’s the beginning of January, so you have to take it with a grain of salt,” Kaczor said.

Despite the imperfections he and Randolph observed, there’s an overriding reason they cheer on the runners with so much energy.

“These kids pour their heart and soul into the track,” Kaczor said. “How can you not support them when they put so much work into what they do?”

Sophomore Tecumseh Adams has an opportunity to finish one of the best seasons by a Chippewa in recent memory Monday in Terre Haute, Ind.

“I was smiling even before I crossed the finish line,” Adams said about Regionals last week. “It was a pretty exciting moment for me. I knew I was one of the top guys in the region this year. I just had to execute and I think I did pretty well.”

Adams gives credit to director of cross-country and track Willie Randolph and assistant coach Matt Kaczor for helping him during the season.

“We’ve been working hard all year, doing workouts, doing mileage and stuff,” Adams said. “Kaczor told me if I just stay calm and collected I’ll be there at the end.”

Adams is the first runner under Randolph to qualify for Nationals.

Randolph is excited for Adams to have a chance for rewards based on his hard work and acknowledged that it’s exciting to have a runner qualify for Nationals under him.

“It feels pretty good, especially when the athlete is excited to be going to Nationals also,” Randolph said. “He has a chance for all the hard work he put in to be rewarded.”

Emotions run high for many athletes on the championship stage, and Randolph is trying to predict how Adams will feel heading into the race.

“He will be outside his comfort zone at Nationals,” Randolph said. “I think he will feel a mix of aggression and excitement, which he should. I think he is just going to go in there and do it.”

Adams is receiving a lot of support in his quest to Nationals. Not only are his coaches and teammates supporting him, but CMU’s alumni are as well.

“It’s pretty exciting,” Adams said. “I know a lot of the alumni are supporting me and supporting this team. It’s just an exciting feeling to get someone there.”

Adams’ family will also be cheering him on.

“My brother was at the last meet and he was pretty excited,” Adams said. “I saw him running around. I called my mom right after, but she had already known. She is coming to Nationals so I’m pretty excited about that.”

Adams isn’t satisfied with making it, though. He still has goals he wants to achieve.

“I want to hang with the top 40 at the beginning,” he said. “All this hard work is paying off. I’m excited about the next few years. Hopefully I’ll become All-American this year.”

The men look to improve on last year’s eighth place finish.

Director of cross-country and track and field Willie Randolph understands what the MAC championships are.

“It means focus and an opportunity to get things done,” he said. “We are just ready to get it done.”

With the weather cooling down, it should be an advantage for CMU.

“Cross-country is a totally different thing,” Randolph said. “Running in the cooler weather is much better than running in the warmer weather. (Runners) thrive in the cooler weather that allows their lungs to get a little bit more oxygen in them.”

Eastern Michigan has had a target on its back for a few years now.

EMU has placed first or second at the MAC Championships every year since 2005.

This year is no different as both coaches and runners look to beat the Eagles.

“Eastern Michigan is definitely one of the top teams year in and year out,” Randolph said. “But we are also a top team that can be competitive at the top. We’ve had some good battles between Central and Eastern over the years that I have been here.”

Junior Jason Drudge is familiar with coming out on top at the MAC Championships.

Last year he earned an All-MAC selection, finishing seventh at the meet.

His eyes are focused on one team and one team only.

“All eyes are on Eastern, the rest of the teams we don’t even care about,” Drudge said. “It’s just us and Eastern and we think of it like that. I think we have enough guys this year to match up with them and beat them.”

Drudge will try and help the team stay together as a pack.

It’s the one thing the Chippewas must do in order to bring home a MAC title.

“We just need to run together, from our first guy to our fifth guy, we can’t have a big separation because that’s where all your points are,” Drudge said. “It’s only nine seconds about 20 guys can get through.” He said.

Assistant coach Matt Kaczor believes that CMU has been dreaming about taking home the MAC title for a while now.

“It would mean something really big,” Kaczor said. “That’s really what we dream for and cultivate for. This is an individual sport like wrestling, but you pull the team together for a championship. This is a huge step in trying to move the program forward.”

Women

All-America honors hang on Kaczor’s wall, but those weren’t the pieces of paper he pointed to.

“This is what it’s about,” he said, pointing to a picture of CMU’s 2004 Mid-American Conference championship ring. “You don’t see a guy wearing a medal on the ribbon around his neck when he’s 35. You’d see him wearing a ring.”

Kaczor said he feels better about the women’s team than he has felt about previous women’s teams. He’s confident about the team performing well in the race.

“They don’t have to do anything spectacular,” he said. “They just have to do what they’re capable of.”

The women’s team enters the weekend ranked No. 10 in the Great Lakes Region of the U.S. Track and Field and Cross-country Coaches Association poll.

One of the main adjustments the Chippewas have made this season is bringing the runners together to the front of the race. Kaczor said the team has improved dramatically over the season in doing so.

“The pack now has started to move closer to the front,” he said. “The four, five and six runners are closer to the one, two and three runners.”

Kaczor said the morale within the team has been as high as ever.

“These ladies have worked with each other real well,” Kaczor said. “It’s been a real good dynamic to work with the women’s team.”

Junior runner Charnele Lyons shattered her personal best time in the 5k race with a time of 18:07, about 50 seconds faster than her previous best. Lyons finished in eleventh place.

“When I stepped at the line, I knew I was going to shatter my personal record,” Lyons said.

The weather, as CMU cross-country assistant coach Matt Kaczor said, was “almost everything rolled up into one.” The temperature was in the low 50s and 40 mile-per-hour winds were recorded on the cross-country course.

“I had a jacket on before the race because it was windy,” Kaczor said. “I took it off during the race because the sun came out, then it started raining so I had to put it back on. The wind was brutal. If you weren’t patient with your moves, you were blown around.”

Lyons was patient and she said she let the other runners do the work in the high wind.

“I just kept thinking,  ‘I don’t want to get detached.’ I tried to stay behind others, out of the wind,” Lyons said. “That made it a lot different race for me.”

Kaczor said Lyons ran the best race for CMU.

“Our top four ran well for us,” Kaczor said. “Charnele had the best race for us — Charnele ate people alive in the last thousand (meters).”

Senior runner Raeanne Lohner also set a new personal best with a time of 17:50 and finished third. Senior Holly Anderson finished soon after with a personal best of 18:04. Seconds later, freshman Breanne Lesnar finished 18:06 in her first attached race. Lyons finished a second after.

Lyons said she liked what she saw from the team.

“Friday was probably the best race so far this season,” Lyons said.

Kaczor said he is looking for someone else to step up for the coming championship races.

“We need a fifth runner to step up for us in the next couple weeks so we can really make a push in the championship segment,” he said.

The Chippewas race on Friday at the Michigan Intercollegiate Championships in Hillsdale.

Junior Raeanne Lohner finished 15th of out a field of 231 runners with a time of 21 minutes and 4 seconds in the 6,000-meter race. Lohner earned an All-Region selection with her performance and is the first CMU women’s runner since Suzy Sommers in 1989 to earn that distinction.

Chippewas Director of Cross Country Willie Randolph could not be more thrilled of Lohner’s season.

Randolph said that for Lohner to complete her first cross country season after being recruited to run just an 800-meter race is impressive and something that the coach is proud of.

“A lot of my success was carried through momentum from the track season last year,” said Lohner, who also competes on the women’s track and field team. “Being selected to the All-Regional team was a nice way to finish the season.”

The women’s team has another runner to be excited about for the future. Freshman Krista Parks was the first Chippewa runner to finish behind Lohner, in 29th place with a time of 21 minutes and 31 seconds. She was the third fastest freshman in the region.

“Having one of the top freshmen in the region shows the recruiting of this team,” Randolph said.

The remaining four runners for CMU finished in the top 100. Junior Holly Anderson finished 59th (21:58.79), senior Danielle Dakroub was 62nd (22:02.89), sophomore Maddie Ribant placed 70th (22:11.04) and senior Kylee Kubacki was 71st (22:11.71).

Randolph had hopes of qualifying for NCAA Nationals, but finishing in the top 10 was expected.

“We are very proud of the team considering the last two years we have been in the top ten,” he said. “We hoped to finish higher than eighth, but we are still grateful.” “This has been one of the programs best teams ever. The seniors were able to walk away with good memories while going out on top,” Lohner said.

Like Lohner, Randolph believes the squad is heading in a strong direction. In addition to Lohner and Parks returning with another year of experience next year, Randolph will be expecting a lot more from the women.

“We have a lot of great pieces to the puzzles in place,” Randolph said. “We are hoping to get over that hump of 2nd place in the MAC and start to win championships.”

Men’s side

The men’s team finished 19th out of 31 teams. In his last collegiate race the Chippewas were lead by senior Cory Arnold. Arnold finished 82nd in a field of 216 runners with a time of 32 minutes and 16 seconds in the 10K race.

Randolph said Arnold ran like a senior with no regrets and was also pleased to see the underclassman step up and make a mark for next season.

Sophomore Jason Drudge finished with a time of (32:25.85), placing 89th. Freshman Zach Tranter was 98th with a time of (32:34.82). Junior Jeremy Kiley finished in 109th with a time of (32:46.69) and senior Chris Pankow placed in 110th with a time of (32:46.87).

“Jason Drudge and Zach Tranter ran really strong,” he said. “It is going to be a much different and stronger team next year.”

Despite finishing near the bottom of the region, the men’s team did beat Akron and Toledo, two teams they did not beat in the MAC Championship meet.

Randolph is confident with the men’s team moving forward. CMU will have some top runners back since being redshirted this year.

“We are looking towards the future to win the MAC and qualify for Nationals,” he said. “We want to thank the other seniors for helping the young guys get into the right direction.”

With the season coming close to an end, the team looks to finish strong both this weekend and possibly qualify for the NCAA Championships.

The men will compete in a 10k race at 1:15 p.m. while the women’s team will be competing in a 6k race at noon.

At the Mid-American Conference championships on Oct. 30 in Kalamazoo, the women’s team finished second while the men placed eighth.

“We need to continue to stay confident and go out there and compete,” said CMU Director of Cross Country and Track & Field Willie Randolph.

Junior Raeanne Lohner leads a women’s squad that hopes to qualify for nationals. Lohner placed second at the MAC championship.

“This weekend we are looking to put our best race out there as whole,” Lohner said. “I’m looking to run a smart but extremely competitive race. The goal being to qualify for nationals.”

Rounding out the women’s side are seniors Brittany Dixon, Danielle Dakroub and Kylee Kubacki, juniors Holly Anderson, sophomore Maddie Ribant and freshman Krista Parks.

Seniors Cory Arnold and Chris Pankow, juniors Wade Buchs and Jeremy Kiley, sophomores Zach Tanter and James Drudge and freshman Nathan Huff will compete on the men’s side.

Senior cross country runner Kylee Kubacki and her younger sister are in a 2003 blue Chevy Malibu as they watch their house burn to the ground.

Kubacki remembers waking up to the smell of smoke just moments before. Her dad, Mark, had just left for work after checking the stove since it began to smoke.

But Mark and Kubacki didn’t think too much of it because it backed up frequently.

Then suddenly the roof began to sound like freezing rain was pounding against it. Immediately, she knew something was wrong and ran to tell her mom.

The breaker shut off. The lights to the upstairs went out. And the smoke alarm started to sound.

“When we called my dad, he asked if we could put it out, but we couldn’t because we didn’t even see it,” Kubacki said. “When you walked outside you could see the smoke and hear the crackling in our living room, so we knew it was not good and spreading fast.”

Kubacki, along with her 15-year-old sister, Hailey, and their mother, Colleen, started running in and out of the house, grabbing items to save. The first thing Kubacki saved was the family’s Nintendo Wii, while the rest of her family took what they could until the smoke was too much.

Lucky for Kubacki, her clothes were already packed in her car. The Sunday before, she was supposed head back to CMU and join the rest of her teammates to start the track and field season. but she came down with the flu and stayed home to get better.

There was not much they could do once the smoke became too thick, except hope the firefighters came quickly. But with the location of her house, there was not much of a chance of it being saved.

“We live out in the country so for a fire department to get to our house, they say 20-30 minutes,” Kubacki said.

At that point there was nothing they could do.

“We sat in the cars for probably 15 minutes and just watched our house burn down,” she said.

Getting on their feet

Luckily for Kubacki and her family, they had places to stay nearby. Kubacki stayed with her boyfriend’s family while the rest of her family lived with her grandma.

By the end of February the house was completely demolished and the first week of March the contractor started rebuilding. During the process a family friend gave up his house to give them a place of their own.

Within six months the family was back under their own roof again, despite not having any carpet or furniture in the living room.

In the midst of dealing with her house, Kubacki was dealing with something much more dear to her heart.

Coming off of a solid cross country season the fall before, Kubacki returned from winter break to start the indoor track season. On Jan. 17, 2009, Kubacki was prepared to run in her third meet of the season with her parents in attendance at Kent State.

But her dad, Mark, wasn’t feeling good and he had developed a lump on his neck. Doctors removed it, but told him it was something not to worry about. Two weeks later the lump came back. He was later diagnosed with Hypothyroidism, meaning the thyroid is not making enough thyroid hormone, leading to an increased chance of a heart attack or stroke.

Mark was given some medication to cure his diagnosis but as the months progressed, the medication was not working like it was supposed to and was increased.

Learning the news

In July 2009, while Kubacki was taking summer classes at Delta Community College, she received a text message from her dad telling her they needed to have a family meeting. Right away, Kubacki started jumping to conclusions that something was wrong with his health.

“I instantly knew he had cancer, so I started to look things up on the Internet,” Kubacki said.

When Mark sat everyone down in the kitchen, he delivered the news that he was diagnosed with non-hodgkins lymphoma.

“The hardest thing was telling the girls I had cancer,” Mark said.

But they found nothing linking the lump to cancer. The cancer had spread to the lymph nodes in his back and chest.

He began six weeks of chemotherapy during Labor Day weekend. Then, on Christmas Eve, he started going to the doctors four to seven times a week for a series of radiation treatments.

Mark was used to working two jobs. He owned his own construction company. Mark said it was quite a bad thing for me not being able to work.

“It was time for me to take the back seat,” he said.

But as she was leaving for cross country camp, she recalled a specific moment in which she had trouble recognizing her father.

“He couldn’t even get up to give me a hug,” Kubacki said.

For Kylee, running was one of the last things on her mind as she headed up for camp to start her junior year. As a result, she had the support from several of her teammates.

“I was there for her to talk to a lot,” said senior cross country runner Danielle Dakroub. “It wasn’t hard for her to open up to me.”

With the love she received from her teammates on the track, she also received a tremendous amount of support from her boyfriend, Dave Hanson. Their relationship was put to the test right away. The two had only been dating for three months before her dad was diagnosed with cancer.

She would stay at his house for awhile and the two of them would frequently make trips back and forth from Mount Pleasant to Big Rapids, where Hanson attends school at Ferris State University.

“I kept telling myself it couldn’t get any worse,” he said. “I just believed in faith that it was going to OK.”

Hanson gives Kubacki a lot of credit for staying mentally strong during the difficult times.

“Seeing her dad weak and losing weight along with watching the house burn down was tough,” he said.

Getting better

Life went on for Kubacki and her dad.

While she was still going to practices and running in meets, Mark continued to go through treatments.

She often checked in with her dad but after his third chemo treatment, he did not have the energy to talk.

“You could see in her face the lack of motivation to run,” Dakroub said. “But she always gave it an effort. She even pushed me a lot during track season to tell me to go faster.”

As her dad’s cancer treatments continued, he started to regain his energy. Because of financial issues, Mark had to finish building the house himself.

“It was a fresh start of getting through cancer and the house,” Mark said. “It kept my mind occupied away from the cancer.”

After a month following his last treatment, he went to the hospital for a follow up CAT scan and MRI.

On March 15, he was officially cancer free.

Despite all of her struggles, CMU cross country director Willie Randolph described Kubacki as happy and upbeat.

“She made it through with the support of the team and her close friends,” Randolph said.
In an act of kindness, Randolph and his staff put together a small fundraiser to raise money to buy clothes for the family, raising about $2,000.

After reflecting on her dad’s battle and the house burning down, Kylee questioned if she wanted to run her senior year. It took all of her junior year and all of last summer to fully recover from the dramatic events. Not knowing if she was coming back, Randolph sent Kubacki text messages throughout the summer.

“He said ‘we’re going to need you this year’,” Kubacki said.

She took the messages to heart and returned in the fall.

“This was my senior year so I wanted to stick with it.”

The Chippewas finished second Saturday to Toledo, which claimed its third title in school history with 44 points. CMU was able to stay just ahead of Miami (OH) with 67 points, while the RedHawks finished third with 69.

“We’re extremely excited about all the hard work they have put in and looking for greater things for them,” said Willie Randolph, CMU director of cross country.

The Chippewas received some great individual performances from one veteran and another by an underclassman as junior Raeanne Lohner and freshman Krista Parks both finished in the top 10.

Lohner took second place overall with a time of 20 minutes, 43 seconds. Parks finished seventh in 21:22.

Randolph said Lohner has been the team’s leader and frontrunner all year long.

“It was the best race I could have run,” Lohner said. “It was really a race for second or third.”

Parks continues to impress her coaches and teammates this season. With her performance as a freshman, she has given herself some conference recognition.

“I don’t think there has been any freshman that has finished that fast and that high in the MAC meet in years,” Randolph said.

The hard work and dedication to get better for the women’s team once again paid off as senior Kylee Kubacki’s 12th place CMU grabbed three all-conference performers. That is the most since 2000. Lohner and Parks earned first team All-MAC honors, while Kubacki received second team All-MAC honors.

“Things are looking very positive,” he said. “Right now we’re just focusing on closing the holes so we can stay in the top five in our conference for years to come.”

CMU’s other finishes included sophomore Maddie Ribant (29th, 22:02.9), senior Danielle Dakroub (30th, 22:05) and junior Veronica Garcia (51st, 22:53).

“I was thrilled to see how everyone ran,” Lohner said. “It was such a big improvement so you can’t complaint too much about the end result.”

Men

The youth of the men’s team showed on Saturday in the MAC Championship.

Without former All-MAC performer Riak Mabil from last year’s squad, the team had to rely on underclassmen to carry the team, and sophomore Jason Drudge did just that.

Drudge. who was not even on a cross country team last year, earned first team All-MAC honors.

Drudge ran his best time of the year, finishing seventh with a time of 24 minutes, 58 seconds.

“He had mission he wanted to accomplish,” Randolph said. “We’re very excited for him and his young future.”

Eastern Michigan won its 15th MAC title in school history, finishing with 66 points. There was a tie for second as Kent State and Miami (OH) both finished with 94 points.

But what proved to be costly for the Chippewas, who finished in eighth place with 143 points, was the large gap between Drudge and the next pair of runners.

The second pack was made up of seniors Cory Arnold and Chris Pankow. who finished
24th (25:30) and 29th (25:37), respectively.

Despite their low finish, Randolph said the team is still headed in the right direction.

“They gave it everything they had,” Randolph said. “We’re trying to align ourselves for next year.”

Junior Jeremy Kiley (40th, 25:47.2) and freshmen Zach Tranter (43rd, 26:02.8) and Nathan Huff (50, 26:23.2) turned in top 50 finishes.

The CMU cross country program will be back in action on Nov. 13 in Rochester for the NCAA Regional meet.

The Central Michigan cross country teams will travel to Three Rivers Saturday for the Mid-American Conference Championships. The meet, to be held at Pine View Golf Club, is hosted by Western Michigan. The women will race in the 6K at 11 a.m., while the men start their 8K at noon.

The top finishers from both the men and women’s sides will be conference champions. The top 15 finishers from each race will be awarded All-MAC honors.

Willie Randolph, director of cross country, said the team is confident heading into this weekend’s competition.

“The team has been putting some good workouts together and they are really focused on taking care of business,” Randolph said.

It has been six years since the men’s team won its last MAC championship, while the women have not won a title since 2000.

The women’s team is currently ranked seventh in the Great Lakes Region, along with other MAC schools Ohio, Toledo and Miami. On the men’s side, Eastern Michigan (eighth), Kent State (14) and Ohio (15) are regionally ranked.

Running for the women will be Holly Anderson, Danielle Dakroub, Brittany Dixon, Veronica Garcia, Kylee Kubacki, Raeanne Lohner, Krista Parks, Maddie Ribant and Sarah Squires.

Cory Arnold, Wade Buchs, Jason Drudge, Nathan Huff, Jeremy Kiley, Chris Lotz, Chris Pankow, Nathan Sanchez and Zach Tranter will compete for the men’s team.

After finishing 26th out of 261 runners at Pre-Nationals Oct. 16, junior Raeanne Lohner is focused for competition this weekend.

“Our main goal for this weekend is to focus on ourselves, running together, and making sure that we put ourselves in a position that is competitive with any other team,” Lohner said.

Last season, the men finished third after Riak Mabil finished runner up and Sammy Kiprotich placed seventh. The team, without Mabil and Kiprotich this season, is rebuilding, but senior Chris Pankow looks forward to his last outdoor MAC championship meet.

“We have been working on tweaking some of our fast twitch muscles by tagging on faster paced 800’s at the ends of our workouts,” Pankow said.

Mission accomplished.

The team finished 15th at the NCAA Pre-Nationals meet hosted by Indiana State Saturday in Terre Haute, Ind. Pre-Nationals gave both teams the opportunity to grab points for the end of the year and to see where they are before MAC championships Oct. 30 in Rochester.

Junior Raeanne Lohner led the women’s side, finishing 26th overall in a field of 261 runners with a time of 20 minutes, 49 seconds.

“I really focused what I could control in the race and made sure I personally focused on my splits,” Lohner said.

Willie Randolph, director of track & field and cross country, credits her performance to the training and the work of coaching staff.

“Coach Kaczor has done a great job training with her to help the transition from track to cross country,” Randolph said.

Finishing in a pack is one of the main keys for a successful team. For the Chippewas, the next four runners did just that. Senior Danielle Dakroub set a personal-best with a time of 21:39, finishing 97th.

Freshman Krista Parks (104th, 21:41), senior Kylee Kubacki (124th, 21:53.6) and sophomore Maddie Ribant (125th, 21:53.8) rounded out the lineup.

“Everyone left feeling like we are in the mix for a MAC title,” Lohner said, “but it will be a challenge that can be done.”

Randolph’s goal for the team was to finish in the top 30, but with how well the team performed they have a chance to become ranked nationally, a feat that has never happened before with the CMU women’s cross country teams.

“The confidence level is exactly where we want it to be right now,” Randolph said.

Men’s side

The men’s team is not likely to contend for a MAC title this year after its 34th place finish. The team is rebuilding and does not have a front runner like they had last year.

Senior Chris Pankow paced the way for the men, finishing in 124th out of 241 runners in a time of 25 minutes, 17 seconds.

“I just forgot about the clock and focused on running,” Pankow said.

Other finishers for the 8k race included senior Cory Arnold (25:43) and sophomore Jason Drudge (177th, 25:52), who ran in the same pack for much of the race.
Rounding out the top seven were junior Jeremy Kiley (209th, 26:21.3) and freshman Nathan Huff (213th, 26:31.4). Redshirt freshmen Zach Tranter (26:40.3) and Chris Lotz (27:24.0) finished 219th and 231st, respectively.

“We really wanted to finish in the top 20, but it really wasn’t to our liking,” Pankow said. “Some of the guys are still learning how the race works.”

But even though they are not one of the front runners to win the MAC, it does not mean the team has lost its confidence to compete.

“They are very aware they can do better than they have shown,” Randolph said. “The young guys ran more mentally competitive than physically at this one. Running as a team is more important this year for the men’s side.”

Time off

As they prepare for the MAC meet, the message from Randolph to both teams is still the same as day one: Go out and demand respect.

The top seven for the men’s and women’s sides will remain the same for now, but both will more than likely take nine runners to Kalamazoo in case of injuries.

The training will continue to be different for each athlete the rest of the way. In order for a strong showing in two weeks, Randolph said the athletes need start doing their homework on their competition.

“They must be aware of where everyone is at in the rest of the conference, including who they must beat person-to-person,” he said.